BourgeoisieGerman RevolutionParis CommuneRosa LuxemburgSocialismWorking Class

Page Nine November 8th, 1919 THE COMMUMIB All Is Quiet In Berlin!
LL is quiet in Warsaw. declared mi By Rosa Luxembourg press, the official Wolff bureau, the Vor nister Sabastiany in the Paris Chamwarts. These steps taken by the masses Her last Article ber of Deputies in 1831, when the hordes of were the result of their instinctive consiSuvorov, after the capture of Prague, a suousness that the counter revolution, too, Scheidemann and the establishment of the burb of Warsaw, entered the Polish capital proletarian dictatorship possible? Of course would not submit to the defeat which it and began their murderous suppression of had sustained, but would bring about a final not, if we soberly consider the various mothe people in revolt.
ments which have a decisive effect upon test of strength between the contending All is quiet in Berlin declares the trium this question. The weak spot of the revoforces.
phant bourgeoise press, declare Ebert and lution at present the inadequate political Here, too, we discover one of the great Noske, declare the officers of the victorious maturity of the soldier masses which still laws of the revolution by which is shattered army whom the bourgeoisie mobs joyfully permit themselves to be used by the offi into dust the clever trickery and patented greet on the streets with floating placards cers for anti working class and counter knowledge of the Independents, who in and outbursts of Hurrah. The glory of revolutionary purposes is already sufficient every clash endeavor to find an excuse for German arms is saved before the world proof that in this clash there was no chance retreating. It is sufficient to formulate the history. Defeated on the fields anders of a lasting victory for the revolution. On fundamental problem of the revolutionand the Argonne, they restored their repu the other hand, the insufficient maturity of and in this revolution it is the overthrow of tation by winning a victory over 3000 Spar the soldier masses is a symptom of the gethe Ebert Scheidemann regime, the first obtacans in the building of the Vorwärts. neral immaturity of the German revolution. stacle to the triumph of Socialism. and this The times of the first glorius entrance of The village whence comes a considerable problem will again and again reappear in the German army into Belgium, the times part of the soldier masses remains as yet all its acuteness. Each separate episode of of General von Emmich, the conqueror of little touched by the revolution. Berlin is the struggle, as if with the fatality of a law Liege, pale before the heroic deeds of Rein still quite isolated from the rest of Germa of nature, places at the fore this problem in hard Co. on the streets of Berlin. The ny. True, the revolutionary provincial cen its entirety, though the revolution might killed emissaries who intended to negotiate ters in the Rhineland and the adjacent pro be entirely unprepared and the existing the surrender of the Vorwärts. mutilated vince, in Brunswick, in Saxony, in Wurtem conditions lutterly inappropriate. Down beyond recognition by the butts of guns, berg they are heart and soul with the Ber with Ebert Sheidemann. this slogan inmutilated to such an extent that it is im lin proletariat. But there is still lacking variably reappears in each revolutionary possible to identify the corpses; the prison the co ordination of action which would con crisis as the one unifying formula for all the ers shot in such manner that the walls are siderably increase the blow and the offen separate conflicts, and, due to its intrinsic sprinkled with their brains: looking on sive might of the Berlin working classes. objective logic. this slogan, wether you like these valiant deeds, who will remember the Besides, the economic struggle this chief it or not, tends of itself to sharpen each shameful defeats sustained in the war with volcanic source from which the class separate cpisode of the struggle.
the Frenchmen, English men and Ameri struggle derives its energy is as yet in the From this contradiction between the incans? Spartacans that is the enemy; and primary stage of developinent, tensity of the problem and the inadquacy Berlin that is the place where our officers Hence follows the conclusion that at this of the conditions required for its solution at are victorious; the workingman Noske moment it was impossible to expect a last the inital phase of revolutionary developthat is the general who is able to achieve ing victory. Does it mean that last week ment, arises the cause wherefore the sevictories where General Ludendorfi was un struggle was a mistake. Yes, if we ad parate episodes of the revolutionary struggle successíul.
mit the assumption of a premeditated plan end in formal defeats. But a revolution is Who does not recollect the drunken vic of action, of a so called rebellion. What the only form of war where the final victory tories of those that restored order in Paris; was the starting point of last week fight culminates from a whole series of dewho does not recollect the bacchanalia of ing? In all former cases, as the 6th of De feats.
the bourgeoisie upon the corpses of the fallen cember, as the 24th of December a dast What is shown by the history of modern defenders of the Commune, that same bour ardly government provocation. Just like revolutions and Socialism? The first flame geoisie which had just capitulated ignomini the bloody bath perpetrated upon the un of the class struggle in Europe: the uprising ously before Prussia and handed over the caarmed demonstrants Schosasstrasse, of the Lyons weavers in 1831 ended in bitter pital to the foreign foe. What a flaming like the massacre of the sailors, just so now defeat. The Chartist movement in England courage inspired the bourgeos youngsters, an attempt upon the life of the chief of. in defeat. The rising of the Paris prolethe gilded youth, the titled officers against police was the cause of all subsequent tariat in June 1848 ended in a terrible defeat.
the badly armed and starved Paris proleta events. The revolution does not operate ac The Paris Coinmune was brought to an end rians, against their unprotected wives and cording to a thought out plan, in the open by a crushing defeat. The entire road to children. With what an ardour these sons field of battle, according to a technical plan Socialism as far as the revolutionary of Mars, who humbly prostrated themselves of strategists. Its enemies also display struggle is concerned is paved with debelore the foreign foe, now displayed their initiative, they generally display even more feats.
martial courage by hurling upon the helpless initiative than the revolution, And nevertheless, this same history leads prisoners and the vanquished their brutally Facing the fact of the Ebert Scheidemann uninterruptedly, step by step, to the final cruel vengeance, provocation, the revolutionary workers were victory. Where would we be without those All is quiet in Warsaw All is quiet compelled to take up arms. Yes, the honor defeats, from which we derive our historic in Paris. All is quiet in Berlin. Such of the revolution demanded an immediate experience, learning, fighting power and are the announcements of the upholders of energetic repulse of this attack, otherwise idealism? Now, on the eve of the last defeat, law and order, re echoing every half century the counter revolution would find courage in the proletarian class struggle, we actually írom one world center of the struggle to the for a further offensive, while the revolutio base ourselves on those defeats which are other. And the triumphant victors do nary lines of the proletariat and the moral all supremely important for us, each one of not notice that the order which is maintained prestige of the German revolution in the them forming a part of our strength and our by periodic bloody massacres is impelled to International would have been shaken.
consciousness.
move uninterruptedly toward its historic An immediate resistance developed among In this respect the revolutionary struggle doom, its total destruction. What does the the Berlin working masses with such conlast Spartacan weck in Berlin signiíy, scious energy that the moral victory was at struggle. We in Germany have had for forty is the exact opposite of the parliamentary what has it given, what does it teach? Even once on the side of the street. But such amid the struggle, amid the shrieks of the years steady parliamentary victories. we is the internal vital law of the revolution counter revolution, the revolutionary prole that it must not stop at the point of an inital marched from victory to victory. But as a result in the great historic test of the 4th of tariat must take an account of what hap success, remaining inert and passive. The August 1914 an annihilating political and pened, must measure the past and all its best means of parrying is a powerful counter moral defeat, an unparalelled smash, an unconsequences with an historic compass. The blow. This fundamental law of fighting is precedented bankruptcy. All revolutions revolution cannot lose time; through the especially applicable to the revolution. It is have thus far given us only defeats, but open graves, through victories and de seli evident and furnishes an irrefutable these inevitable defeats are the surest guafeats it sweeps onward to its great goal. proof of the healthy instinct, the internal viTo follow its movements consciously is the tal force of the Berlin proletariat, and there.
rantee of the future final victory.
first task of the fighters of international SoTrue, on one condition. The question is fore the workers were not satisfied with the cialism. Was it possible in this clash to under what circumstances occured each dere instatement of Eichorn, but instinctively atlin a final victory for the revolutionary proceded to occupy the other strongholds feat: was it on account of the fact that the proletariat, was the overthrow of Ebert and of the counter revolution: the bourgeois (Continued on page 10)
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